You're (In Love With) Ramone!
by KAHOPEd00l
Summary: Grace/Karen AU of S07E06 'The NewlyDreads': Karen has been in love with Grace for years and has always settled for just being friends but when Grace's behavior calls her view of their friendship into question, Karen decides she has to quit. Is this the end of their friendship or the beginning of a new kind of relationship?
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

My first attempt at Fan-fiction was a story about Niles/Daphne from the show 'Frasier' and I fully intended my second story to be about them as well. While I am working on another story centered around those two characters, I couldn't help but be inspired by the relationship between Karen and Grace after the reboot of Will & Grace prompted me to re-watch the original series again. I'm normally not one to ship non-canon couples but, seriously (?!), how can you not love the idea of Grace/Karen. Also, I defy anyone to watch Will & Grace and _not_ come away with the understanding that Karen is obviously in love with Grace.

Anyway, I guess all of that is to say that this account will most likely be home to many stories featuring many couples from many shows. If anyone is interested, this particular story is an AU of 'Will & Grace' S07E06, "The NewlyDreads". The story begins toward the end of the episode after Karen has revealed the apartment and Grace takes credit for her work. I wouldn't exactly call the first half 'canon' but I do use some of the real dialog from the episode (as well as a quote from a different episode that has always been a Karen favorite of mine. See if you can spot it!) I included the scene of Karen quitting – with a little twist – but it does become very AU after that.

****Disclaimer**** I do not own any of the characters or dialog taken directly from the show. All rights belong to the creators/producers/writers of Will & Grace.

* * *

Chapter One:

Karen sat in her chair and stared blankly at the singular box sitting on her desk, full of everything that she had accumulated while working at Grace Adler Designs. It had been nine years since she had walked into this office for the first time. She remembered everything about that day…

* * *

It had started off with her being awoken by Rosie sometime around 11:30 AM and wandering downstairs to drink her breakfast. It had been unfortunate timing on her part because Stan was in the dining room awaiting his fourth breakfast which was running behind schedule causing him to be particularly irritable. His "hanger" mixed with her hangover led to a nasty squabble which ended with him implying that all she was good for was spending his money and that she would never be able to do an honest days' work if her life depended on it. To this day she still wasn't 100% certain why his words had cut her so deeply or what exactly it was about them that fueled such a deep anger and insecurity within her that it caused her to pick up the paper and march herself to the first address listed in the 'Help Wanted' section.

She was beginning to doubt herself just a bit as she turned the door knob and before she could even utter a sound to make her presence known she was taken in by the sight of a young redhead sitting behind a desk that was covered with fabric swatches and take-out cartons. Karen gathered that she was on the phone with someone named Will who was apparently extremely funny because the redhead let out a laugh that was not quite like anything Karen had ever heard before but that she wouldn't exactly call unpleasant.

As the woman leaned forward to hang up the phone she noticed Karen for the first time and a smile broke out across her face that was so beautiful and genuine that it took Karen's breath away. The woman got up and as she walked toward her she held out her hand and said,

"Hi. I'm Grace Adler. What can I do for you?"

Karen reached her hand out to shake Grace's and said,

"Hi, I'm Karen Walker and-,"

"Oh, did we have a meeting set up? Gosh, I'm so sorry it's just that I'm sort of in between assistants right now and I must have forgotten to put you down in the book-,"

"Oh, no, Honey, that's why I'm here. I want to interview for the job."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed…I mean the way you're dressed…I mean you look like…well you're just the best dressed assistant I've ever seen."

She let out of those laughs again only this one was a bit more nervous and self-conscious. Karen still liked the sound of it though. She wasn't sure what it was but there was just something about this Grace Adler that intrigued her. She figured if she _had_ to work somewhere – and if she ever wanted Stanley to get off her back, she did – she might as well work somewhere that could be a little fun. And although Karen wasn't normally one for sentimentalities or clichés she had this feeling that she had just met someone who was going to change her life. She made up her mind right then and there that she would in fact take this job.

"Well, listen, Honey, if I'm being really honest I don't really _need_ a job per se, it's just something to get me out of the house and away from my husband and step-kids for a while. But I really do appreciate the offer-,"

"Well, actually, I haven't offered-,"

"-and I'll take it!"

"Um, I just…I mean do you have any experience in design…or assisting….or anything?"

"Listen, Grace…Adberg, was it?"

"Adler."

"Whatever. I might not have an extensive résumé but you won't find a better assistant. I have plenty of rich friends who are always looking for great designers so I could get you a ton of jobs. I could give you fashion advice and help you fix this mess that you've thrown on yourself today. You're clearly still single so I can help you find a man. You could stand to learn a lot from me, I mean, I'm fabulous, okay? I'm an incredible dresser, I've got buckets of money, I'm a hoot and a half, and I've got a killer rack. The point is that, clearly you need me and who am I to deny you that? I'll be back tomorrow around 11:30ish. I don't care about the pay or the benefits but I am going to need a very generous lunch hour and if you could clear some space for a mini-fridge, that'd be great."

She left the office just as Grace was dazedly mumbling something that sounded like,

"Okay, well, thanks. See you tomorrow."

As Karen walked back to the car she felt lighter and happier than she had in years. Something in her life had just shifted and she was almost certain that it was for the better.

* * *

Karen was snapped out of her reverie by the shrill ring of the phone. She considered answering it for a second before she decided that since she had never bothered to do that while she actually worked here she probably shouldn't start now that she was about to quit.

She never thought that it would all end like this. At first it was easy enough to ignore the fact that she felt more for Grace than an employee should for her boss or more than one friend should feel for another. She could always convince herself that the reason it bothered her so much when Grace went on dates or entered into a relationship was because of her spectacularly bad taste in men. None of those losers were ever good enough for her Gracie – but therein lied the problem – she wasn't really _her_ Gracie. She was always Danny's Gracie, or Nathan's Gracie, or Leo's Gracie – that one had really stung. When Grace married Leo it became much harder for Karen to deny her growing feelings but even then she managed to talk herself down by rationalizing that her issue with their union lay in the fact that she really despised Leo. But that rationalization would always lead to the nagging question of why. Why did she hate Leo so much? The answer came to her one night as she sat in the study drinking her dessert. She hated Leo because he had the one thing that she could never have – the love of Grace. After that realization Karen gave up trying to deny her feelings and instead focused all of her energy on keeping them hidden from the world and most especially from the object of her affections.

She realized now that she had been successful. Grace was, in fact, blissfully unaware that her assistant was madly in love with her. She supposed she should be happy about this however she couldn't help but feel as though it were a hollow victory. On the nights when the sting of knowing that her love would never be returned became too much, she would console herself with the thought that no matter what happened she would always have Grace's platonic love. They would always be friends and she figured that any love that Grace had to give was better than none at all. But now, after witnessing how easy it had been for Grace to completely disregard their friendship in order to make herself look better to a client, Karen was beginning to question if Grace held their friendship in the same esteem that she did. All of this time that she spent keeping her feelings from Grace, she now realized, had left Grace with the impression that she had no feelings at all.

She knew that she had to leave. It was too much. Having to walk into the office every day and be mindful of everything that she said and did in order to keep Grace at a safe distance. To fight the internal battle of being so close to the one person she loved more than anything and never allowing that love to come out into the open. She had done it for all of these years and forced herself to be content with the deep and comfortable friendship that they had forged but now, the knowledge that Grace didn't even care about her as a friend left her no choice. She had to go.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

Just as Karen finally made up her mind to leave, the door opened and she heard a familiar voice say,

"Where did you go? I turned around and you were gone. I ended up having to take the subway."

Karen was annoyed by the fact that despite her anger and disappointment her heart still jumped and her stomach still dropped at the sound of Grace's voice. She was equally as annoyed with the irritated tone in which Grace spoke to her. As far as Karen was concerned, Grace had no room to be angry with her after what she had done. Usually she would let Grace get away with anything because that was how their relationship worked. They both excused one another for their weaknesses and respective mistakes with the understanding that the next time they screwed up they would be cut the same slack. But there was just something about what Grace had done this time that Karen couldn't get over or look past.

"Oh, did you invent that, too?"

"What are you talking about," Grace said, obviously confused.

"You took credit for my work, Grace. You were about to lose that job and I covered for you, and you put your name on it," Karen responded feeling the anger and betrayal rise up within her once again.

"That's how it works, Karen. It's called 'Grace Adler Designs'. I'm the fact of the company. It's like…it's like Colonel Sanders. If you ran into him on the street and you told him you liked his chicken he wouldn't say, 'Oh, well, I didn't make it, Ramone did.' He'd say, 'Thanks. I'm Colonel Sanders. Do you know that we're doing salads now?'"

Karen felt herself getting angrier and angrier. It was clear that not only was Grace not understanding the fact that she was truly hurt but she didn't even think that she'd done anything wrong! Karen took a deep breathe to try and calm herself down before replying,

"That analogy makes no sense at all. Because in this story, it was my original recipe! You're Ramone!"

"You're Ramone," Grace shouted back.

"You're Ramone."

"Okay, look, this is ridiculous," Grace said calmly, "We're not going to get anywhere calling each other names all day."

Then as she was turning around Karen heard her say 'Ramone' once again and just as she was about to unleash her anger, Grace said,

"I'm sorry you're upset but it's business."

It was like a slap in the face. Karen didn't think that anything anyone had ever said to her in her entire life stung as much as those words from Grace just had. She steeled herself before continuing,

"I didn't do it for business. I did it as a friend. And do you know what a friend does when another friend saves their ass? They acknowledge it."

"Okay. Thank you," Grace said.

"It's too late. You know for nine years, I have religiously shown up occasionally at this office and I have never once cashed a paycheck. And you know why? Because you're my friend. Or at least I thought you were," Karen said, allowing the emotion to show in her voice just a bit.

"All right," Grace said, adopting a much more sincere tone than she had used before, "I'm sorry. Are we okay?"

She wanted to say yes; she really did. She wanted to tell Grace to forget the whole thing and come in the next morning and act like everything was fine. She wanted to swallow her pride and allow Grace to take advantage of her just for the chance to be around her and hear her laugh and see her smile. She wanted that more than anything; but she knew that she couldn't. She knew that if she did, something like this would happen again. Sooner or later they would find themselves in another situation in which it was made blatantly obvious that Grace did not share her feelings. It was inevitable…and so was the pain that would come along with it. So she did what she really did not want to do.

"No. We're not. I quit."

"Are you serious," Grace asked with obvious surprise in her voice.

"Yes, I am serious, Grace. I've packed my things and I'm leaving."

And just like that she took her things and walked out the door leaving Grace behind to wonder what the hell had just happened.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note:

AU from this chapter on.

* * *

Chapter Three:

That first night when Grace had gone home and told Will what had happened, he'd laughed it off and assured her that Karen couldn't have been serious and that she would probably show up in the office the next day. Grace went to bed that night hoping that Will was right and trying to drown out the little voice inside of her that knew he wasn't.

The next day when she went into the office she spent the majority of the time trying to distract herself from looking at the clock. As 11:30 came and went with no sign of Karen flying through the door, her heart sank. She continued to hope against hope but by 1:00, she could no longer ignore the obvious truth; Karen wasn't coming. She was surprised how sad she was about it. At first she tried to be angry – how dare Karen just quit like that after all of the crap that she'd pulled over the years and the things she'd let her get away with – but that didn't work. Then she tried to be angry at herself – why had she done that to Karen and why did she have to be so dismissive of her afterward? That one stuck a little more but it still didn't come close to overshadowing the sadness. The office was so quiet that Grace finally couldn't stand to be there anymore and left early.

The next day passed slowly and Grace did more useless doodling than actual designing before giving up and leaving early once again. Finally, on the third day, Grace went into the office and made the conscious decision to force herself to work. She wouldn't allow herself to leave until she had designed something so she immediately opened her notebook and began to sketch.

Sometime later, her work station was now covered in crumpled up rejects and her pencil had officially become dull. Her realization that it needed to be sharpened was immediately followed by her realization that she had no idea where the sharpener was. As she looked around the office for it, she wondered how it could be that someone who used a pencil every day for nine years had never found the need for a pencil sharpener. The answer to her question came as her eyes landed upon the elusive object sitting dead center on Karen's desk.

It appeared that in addition to filing her nails and consuming copious amounts of alcohol every day, Karen had also spent her time making sure every one of Grace's pencils was perfectly sharpened and returned back to their holders to await being used. Grace wondered how she had never noticed that and kicked herself for never thanking Karen.

Grace sharpened her pencil, forcing herself to put Karen out of her mind and get back to work. Suddenly a bit of inspiration struck and Grace began to sketch. She wasn't sure how long she had been working but just as she put the finishing touches on her design, she was startled by the phone ringing.

"Grace Adler Designs," she spoke into the receiver, "Oh, yes, I do remember you Mrs. Zelman…Well, congratulations on your new home and I would love the opportunity to work with you again. We'll just need to set up a time for a consultation so that I can see the space and get a better idea of what we have to work with. When would be a good time for you…Sure, the week of the 3rd should work for me. Let me just take a look at my calendar to get an exact date…"

As she sat in Karen's chair and pulled the calendar toward her, a hint of Karen's perfume wafted up and she was hit with another wave of sadness. She shook it off and flipped the calendar page to the following month to look at the week that she needed. There was something strange looking about this page in the calendar but she couldn't put her finger on it.

After settling on the 6th for her consultation with Mrs. Zelman, Grace wrote it into the calendar and flipped the page back to the current month. It was then that she realized what had been wrong with the next month – with the exception of a few appointments written in black ink on various dates, it was completely blank. It was a stark contrast to the current month's page which in addition to the appointments and meetings with clients written in standard black ink was covered with colorful doodles and messages written in Karen's handwriting. Grace flipped back further and saw that every previous page looked the same and she couldn't help but smile. Some of the doodles were funny and wildly-inappropriate like the one on February 4th that had a cartoon of a woman showing her breasts and wearing beads sitting on top of the words 'Mardi Gras' written in bold red letters. Some were just plain Karen-esque like the doodle on April 10th which simply said 'Pharmacist' and was covered with an array of multi-colored pills or the one on June 3rd that said 'Vodka Delivery' and had a startlingly accurate depiction of a bottle of Grey Goose on it. Then there were the ones that melted her heart a little like the one on February 14th which was covered in hearts and said, "Valentine's Day, have flowers and chocolates delivered for Gracie," or the one on June 1st, which had a picture of a donut decorated with an American flag made of frosting and said, "National Donut Day, pick up Krispie Kreme's for Gracie," or the one on September 23rd that said, "One week until Gracie's birthday. BUY PRESENT," and was underlined in red.

As she flipped through the calendar and saw all of Karen's little reminders, her heart clenched when the realization hit her that most of them were about her. She finally got to the last page that Karen had decorated before she'd quit and saw all of the colorful illustrations leading up to the days before she'd left and then the empty white boxes representing the days after she'd gone and Grace couldn't help but make the connection between those boxes on the calendar and her life. Karen made things fun and bright and cheerful when she was around and now that she was gone everything was dull and empty and boring.

This was the first time that Grace allowed herself to hear the voice in the back of her head telling her that she might have lost her friend for good. She had been so miserable being without Karen at work for the past three days but the idea that she might not come back at all and that Grace would have to be alone in the office, or worse hire someone else to do Karen's job, seemed unimaginable. As she allowed her fingers to trace over the designs drawn on the calendar, Grace tried to picture what it would be like to not have Karen around the office. There would be no one there to ignore the phone, or spill nail polish on the fabric swatches, or make fun of her outfits, or criticize her dates. There would be no one there to sharpen her pencils, or bring her donuts, or listen to her complain, or give her advice, or make her laugh. The more she thought about it, she just couldn't imagine her job without Karen and she certainly couldn't imagine her life without her.

As Grace snapped out of her daydream and back into reality she realized that she was still tracing the calendar. She decided that she had to put it away somewhere because it reminded her too much of Karen. She reached down to the drawer at the bottom of Karen's desk and as she pulled it open she heard rattling. When she looked inside the drawer she saw that Karen had accidentally left behind a bottle of gin. Grace lifted it out of the drawer and was surprised to find that it was nearly full. Karen must have just opened it the day she left.

In a matter of seconds Grace had convinced herself that despite Karen's obscenely robust inventory of liquor that she kept stored in the manse, she was most certainly in desperate need of this particular bottle of gin and that she absolutely _had_ to bring it to her immediately. And if, by chance, she ran into Karen and got to talk to her, then so be it.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note:

Thank you so much to everyone that has made it this far! I loved writing this story so much and I am crossing my fingers that the character's voices ring true to everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed it!

I'm calling this chapter the end for now but if inspiration strikes or I get enough requests I might reconsider.

* * *

Chapter Four:

Grace rang the doorbell and impatiently waited for someone to answer the door. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the door opened to reveal Rosario who appeared to have just come in from cleaning the windows as she was holding a Windex-blue stained rag and still wearing her maroon windbreaker and sunglasses. Grace made eye contact with Rosario and the smile fell from her face as she noticed that Karen's faithful maid did not seem particularly pleased to see her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to see, Karen."

"Well, I don't think that Miss Karen wants to see you."

"Are you sure? Look what I have," Grace said, in her best cutesy sing-song voice, as she pulled the bottle of gin out of her purse.

It was obvious that Karen had told Rosario what had happened; which Grace realized she shouldn't be surprised about because despite their very odd and twisted relationship, Karen and Rosario did not have any secrets between them. It was also becoming obvious that Rosario had no plans to allow Grace to set one foot into the apartment and risk upsetting her boss.

She felt her heart drop at the realization that she was not going to be seeing Karen after all and in one final attempt, she put the liquor bottle back into her purse, looked Rosario square in the eye, and with all the sincerity she could muster said,

"Please?"

Rosario wasn't sure why exactly but the sound of Grace's voice and the look in her eye changed her mind and she stepped aside to allow her entrance into the apartment.

"She's in her room. You listen to me, now. There are at least thirty rooms in this place that nobody knows about – you upset her and no one will ever find you," she paused before adopting a more serious tone and continued, "Don't hurt her again."

"I'll try not to but I can't promise…"

"Thirty rooms. They're not on the blue-prints or anything…"

"I promise."

* * *

Grace knocked on Karen's bedroom door and awaited a reply but heard only silence. She knocked again and waited a few more seconds before finally opening the door and entering. She scanned the room until her eyes landed on Karen, sleeping in the bed. Grace was disappointed that she wouldn't get to talk to her friend but she didn't want to wake her so she walked across the room and quietly placed the bottle of gin on the nightstand, just where she knew Karen would want it.

She turned to look at Karen and saw that her eyes were puffy. Grace knew that she must have been crying and she immediately felt guilty but even more than that she felt a deep sorrow and regret that she had caused Karen any pain. It was instinctual and Grace had no control over it as she reached out and brushed a piece of hair off of Karen's face and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"I'm so sorry, Kare. I should have never taken credit for your beautiful work and I feel awful about the whole thing. I brought you back your gin but I'll get going now…I miss you," she whispered before turning to leave.

As Grace turned her heel got stuck in the carpet causing her to loss her balance and land directly on Karen as she lay in the bed. At that moment, Karen let out an exasperated sigh and said,

"Oh, for God's sake, Grace, you can't even sneak out of a bedroom successfully, can you? What did you take a few nips of the good stuff before you brought it back?"

Realizing Karen had been awake the entire time, Grace pushed herself up off the bed and replied,

"No, I didn't. These damn heels were not meant to be worn on carpet. So you heard the whole thing?"

Karen rose from the bed and replied,

"Honey, I'm drunk, not deaf."

"Well, I meant all of it, Kare. I'm really sorry."

"I know you are, Gracie," Karen sighed.

"So then you'll come back," Grace asked, her voice full of hope.

"No."

"No?"

"No, honey," Karen repeated, "I can't come back."

"Look, Karen, I said that I was sorry. I know what I did was wrong but I'll make it up to you. You can be my design partner and I will make sure that you always get credit for the work that you do and –"

"Honey, listen," Karen interrupted, "it's not about that. I just can't come back."

"But you have to," Grace said insistently, "I need you, Karen."

"No, Gracie, you don't. That's the problem; you don't need me," Karen said sadly, "at least not as much as I need you."

Grace was becoming more confused by the minute but she was desperate to prove to Karen that she understood how important she was to her.

"But I do, Karen! If being without you has taught me anything, it's that I do need you; more than I ever thought that I did."

"Really," Karen replied, hopefully.

"Yes," Grace said sincerely, "I never realized how much you did around that office! I know I used to give you a hard time about not working but I swear I will never say another word about it!"

Karen felt the disappointment deep within her and she couldn't help the slightly bitter tone in her voice.

"Oh, yeah. Well, that's great, honey. I'm glad you realized how much I contributed to the company."

"Well, you don't sound very glad," Grace said, once again feeling her confusion level rising.

"No, really Gracie," Karen said, not even bothering to conceal her annoyance anymore, "I'm tickled pink that you finally got your head out of your ass and noticed that I took the time to sharpen your pencils and refill the scotch tape. It's just the recognition I've longed for."

Grace heard the sarcasm dripping from Karen's voice and felt herself start to get annoyed.

"What is your problem? I'm genuinely trying to show my appreciation for you –"

"Oh, yeah, and that's just what I want, Grace, your appreciation," Karen shot back feeling the anger rise inside her.

"Okay, well then what do you want, Karen," Grace replied allowing her anger to show as well.

"I want –"

 _You._ The word caught in Karen's throat and she sent up a silent prayer of thanks as she realized how close she had come to letting it slip out. She looked at Grace and could see the fury and frustration in her eyes. The familiar ache of being so close to the person she loved the most and knowing that there was nothing she could do about it throbbed in her chest. She took a deep breath and with a calm, even voice said,

"I want you to leave, Grace."

"What?"

"Leave. Now."

Grace stood there in shock for a second before her brain began running a mile a minute to play catch up. How the hell had they just gone from practically screaming in one another's faces to standing in a calm and eerie silence? Grace studied Karen's face for clues and couldn't help but notice that she seemed uncomfortable under the scrutiny. There was a slightly cagey look in her eye as if she were trying to hide something and Grace's intuition told her if she were to walk out the door and leave now, she would never know what it was. Her intuition also told her that whatever it was, was something that she really needed to know. So she stood up taller, squared her shoulders, and said,

"No."

"No?"

"No, I'm not leaving."

"Alright, have it your way. Rosario, get my .38!"

"Karen, knock it off. We both know that the gun is in your nightstand and that your backup is under the mattress in the duffel with your emergency 50 grand. Stop trying to distract me and answer my question. What do you want?"

Karen was beginning to panic and knew that she had to get Grace out of this apartment before her secret came spilling out. Grace, on the other hand, had never felt calmer or braver than she did in this moment. Her wheels were turning and she was almost certain that she had figured out what Karen was trying to keep hidden.

"I want a Mexican tic-tac," Karen said.

"No, you don't," Grace replied.

"I want a dry martini."

"No, you don't."

"I want –"

"Me."

"You?"

They both froze and stared at each other for a moment. Grace knew that she was right but what she couldn't figure out was why the idea didn't send her running for the hills. In fact, much to her confusion, she found it rather exciting. Karen stared at Grace trying to gauge her reaction and figure out what the hell was going on.

"Grace, what are you talking about," she said, desperately trying to sound like she was not in the middle of a full blown panic attack.

"All of these years, all your little jokes and innuendos, all your lame excuses to make out with me or touch my boobs, you wanted me for real, didn't you," Grace said, sounding like a veteran detective who had just solved the case of a lifetime. "You have a crush on me, don't you?"

That snapped Karen back into reality.

"A crush," she laughed, "Yeah, Grace, I have a 'crush' on you. How did you figure it out? Did Susie Parker show you the note that I wrote about you during 3rd period?"

Karen was clearly angry and Grace was back to being confused.

"Why are you getting mad? What are you embarrassed that you have a crush on me because I have bad hair and no fashion sense. The beautiful, sophisticated, stylish, Karen Walker has a crush on Gross Adler –"

"Jesus, Grace I don't have a crush on you. I'm in love with you," Karen shouted.

Grace couldn't ever remember being more stunned in her life. She had never understood that expression about being knocked over by a feather until this moment. Karen was in love with her? How was that possible and why did the thought give her butterflies?

"What," she managed to squeak out.

Karen figured that there was no going back now so she might as well be honest.

"I love you, Grace; that's why I'm mad. Because I just realized what an idiot I am. I've been sitting around waiting for you to see what has been right in front of your face for the last nine years like a pathetic moron and it was all for nothing because it has just now dawned on you that it was possible that I had a crush on you. Well, you're wrong. I don't have a crush on you because we're not fourteen years old. I'm a grown woman and I am in love with you."

Grace felt as though her brain were short-circuiting. There were so many things happening that she didn't know where to start. Her head felt like it was about to explode, her heart was beating out of her chest, and the butterflies in her stomach felt more like dragons…and none of it was all that unpleasant. But she was still confused.

"But I…how did…when did…I don't understand. How could you have been in love with me for nine years? You were married until two years ago. Hell, you just got married again a few months ago."

"Well, I don't really think that the last time counts seeing as how the marriage ended before the shrimp went bad, which thanks to your insistence that we fly it back to New York with us and your subsequent bout with food poisoning we now know was exactly 36 hours after the reception."

"That is not the point. What about Stan. Weren't you in love with Stan?"

"I had a great deal of affection for Stanley. He was comfortable, both in the emotional sense and in the physical sense. Sleeping next to that mountain of a man was like having a second memory foam mattress. But while I cared for Stanley very much and look back on our marriage with a mix of fondness and disgust – mostly fondness –"

"Karen," Grace said, impatiently.

"60/40 –"

"Karen!"

"I loved Stanley, Gracie, but I am in love with you."

Grace stood completely still and allowed Karen's words to sink in. She was in love with her. Karen, her assistant/ball-busting-but-mostly-well-meaning-friend was in love with her. Why was this not freaking her out more? Seriously?! This was some earth-shattering, mind-altering, life-changing shit and yet, she, Grace Adler – Queen of the over dramatic freak outs – had nothing? Well, not _nothing_. There was that familiar, giddy, excited feeling in her chest that she remembered from the first time that she'd played Spin the Bottle and it had landed on Jeremy Lehman. She had felt it the first time she'd kissed Leo, too. But why was she feeling it now?

Grace wasn't sure what was happening because she was positive that she had not had the conscious thought to move her legs, but yet, they were definitely moving. In fact, they were propelling her directly toward Karen and she was powerless to stop them; although she wasn't sure that she wanted to. She wasn't sure of anything except that she was going to kiss Karen. It wasn't even that she wanted to kiss Karen – not that she _didn't_ want to kiss her either. It wasn't a matter of wanting to or not wanting to, it was simply a matter of fact: she was going to kiss Karen. Whatever part of her brain was in charge of her legs was apparently in charge of her lips as well because she had no control over them. Before she knew what was happening she was kissing Karen, who seemed stunned for just a moment before she responded in kind and gave as good as she got.

Grace wasn't sure how long they had been kissing because it seemed like both an eternity and no time at all before the need for oxygen forced them apart. Grace's mind was totally blank except for one singular thought that she couldn't help but express,

"Whoa."

The End


End file.
